He’s baaack. Donald Trump was praised by Republicans for his change in tone lately when speaking about his rivals in the primary. And, just like that, the old Donald is back.
It was noticeable when Trump spoke in a respectful way toward his rivals as they began to drop out after the Iowa caucuses. Trump all but swoons over his new best friend, Vivek Ramaswamy. Vivek suspended his campaign on the night of the caucuses and immediately endorsed Trump. This was no surprise because many Republicans thought Vivek was a Trump placeholder in the Republican primary anyway. It is assumed that he will have a place in Trump’s cabinet. Maybe he’ll be Trump’s vice president pick but I don’t think so. Vivek did not hesitate to begin campaigning with Trump. He even has gone so far as to predict a Reagan kind of landslide victory for Trump in November. Trump praises Vivek like a proud father in return.
Tim Scott suspended his campaign before the Iowa caucuses. He endorsed Trump last Friday in New Hampshire. Much was made of this endorsement because of Scott’s history in South Carolina with Haley. She appointed him to his Senate seat when she was governor in 2012. Then-Senator Jim DeMint retired and the seat opened up. At the time, Scott was in the House of Representatives. So, when he endorsed Trump, it was seen as a poke in Haley’s eye. Trump was happy and flew him up to New Hampshire on Trump Force One. Since then, there have been nothing but warm words from Trump about Tim Scott.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum suspended his campaign before the Iowa caucuses and endorsed Trump. He, too, received gracious words for doing so by Trump. He began to campaign with Trump and appearing on the sage with him
Last, but not least, Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump before the New Hampshire primary. Not a cross word has been said against DeSantis since then by Trump. He made a point of saying that he was retiring the nickname Ron DeSanctimonious. DeSantis is back in Florida and not on the campaign trail with Trump. He said he was endorsing Trump because he pledged to support the Republican nominee and is making good on that pledge. I’m not holding my breath for DeSantis to join Trump on the campaign trail, though.
Trump was also gracious to Nikki Haley after Iowa, though she remained in the race and oddly told Iowans that it was now a two person race. Haley finished in 3rd place in Iowa. It was her overly-aggressive way of pushing DeSantis aside and ignoring that he beat her in Iowa, even after the media and Democrats tried hard to convince voters that she had all the momentum going into the caucuses. Trump didn’t trash her for remaining in the race.
So, conservative media and some others began to notice Trump’s new tone and attitude to his challengers. He’s so gracious, they said. Here’s the thing – Trump’s normal personality is not warm and fuzzy. Sure, he has his moments but normally he likes to project a tough and prickly exterior. It’s how he negotiates and how he governed as president. So to hear conservatives like Laura Ingraham on Fox (she’s a big supporter of Trump) start praising Trump for dialing it back and working to unite the party behind him was like praising a grown man for acting like a civil human being. Trump’s former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany offered words of praise and advice to Trump on the way forward.
Then the New Hampshire primary happened on Tuesday. Mind you, Ingraham and McEnany had just finished their hot takes on Trump’s new attitude when it was time for him to deliver his victory speech. Trump started off by saying his wouldn’t be a typical victory speech because he wanted to tell the truth. Wait, what’s he doing, I pondered. He tore into Nikki Haley and didn’t stop. Even when he moved away from slamming her for not getting out of the race, he went back to doing so. She gave her ‘victory’ speech before Trump and again tried to claim victory in the primary, though she lost by double digits.
Normal Trump was back. Trump trashed Haley for everything from the dress she wore to make her speech – a fancy-ish choice – to her insistence about how well she did. He kept saying how poorly she did. To be fair, she did exceed expectations but she still lost by double digits. He even said Haley would come under investigation if she won the primary. He didn’t give any specific reasons for that claim, though.
‘These are very dishonest people and you’re always fighting that, and just a little note to Nikki: She’s not going to win,’ Trump said. ‘But if she did, she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes and I could tell you five reasons why already. Not big reasons. A little bit of stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about. But she will be under investigation within minutes,’ he said, introducing suspicion without specifying any particular inappropriate conduct.
‘And so would Ron [DeSantis] have been, but he decided to get out. He decided to – now Vivek I don’t think would be at all because he’s perfect,’ Trump said, finishing with a joke about Vivek Ramaswamy, who was on stage and endorsed him during Trump’s victory speech.
Trump is angry that Nikki is going forward in the primary and the gloves are off.
Trump responded to Kayleigh and her advice to him on bringing in independents and winning the general election.
Reacting to Haley’s (sic) advice in a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I don’t need any advice from RINO Kayleigh McEnany on Fox. Just had a GIANT VICTORY over a badly failing candidate, ‘Birdbrain,’ and she’s telling me what I can do better. Save your advice for Nikki!”
In another post, Trump protested, “CNN & MSDNC TREATED MY BIG, DOUBLE DIGIT VICTORY OVER BIRDBRAIN, BETTER THAN FOX!”
We’re back to normal. Trump is being Trump. A 77-year-old man is not going to change. His core supporters like that he has no filter.